Diabetes mellitus, often referred to as diabetes, is a chronic condition in which a person has elevated blood glucose levels that result from defects in the body's ability to produce and/or use insulin. There are three main types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes usually strikes children and young adults, and may be autoimmune, genetic, and/or environmental. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90-95% of diabetes cases and is linked to obesity and physical inactivity. Gestational diabetes is a form of glucose intolerance diagnosed during pregnancy and usually resolves spontaneously after delivery.
In 2009, according to the World Health Organization, at least 220 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. In 2005, an estimated 1.1 million people died from diabetes. Its incidence is increasing rapidly, and it is estimated that between 2005 and 2030, the number of deaths from diabetes will double. In the United States, nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes with an estimated 25 percent of seniors age 60 and older being affected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecast that 1 in 3 Americans born after 2000 will develop diabetes during their lifetime. The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse estimates that diabetes costs $132 billion in the United States alone every year. Without treatment, diabetes can lead to severe complications such as heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, amputations, and death related to pneumonia and flu.
Management of diabetes is complex as the level of blood glucose entering the bloodstream is dynamic. Variation of insulin in the bloodstream that controls the transport of glucose out of the bloodstream also complicates diabetes management. Blood glucose levels are sensitive to diet and exercise, but also can be affected by sleep, stress, smoking, travel, illness, menses, and other psychological and lifestyle factors unique to individual patients. The dynamic nature of blood glucose and insulin, and all other factors affecting blood glucose, often require a person with diabetes to forecast blood glucose levels. Therefore, therapy in the form of insulin or oral medications, or both, can be timed to maintain blood glucose levels in an appropriate range.
Management of diabetes is often highly intrusive because of the need to consistently obtain reliable diagnostic information, follow prescribed therapy, and manage lifestyle on a daily basis. Daily diagnostic information, such as blood glucose concentration, is typically obtained from a capillary blood sample with a lancing device and is then measured with a handheld blood glucose meter. Interstitial glucose levels may be obtained from a continuous glucose sensor worn on the body. Prescribed therapies may include insulin, oral medications, or both. Insulin can be delivered with a syringe, an ambulatory infusion pump, or a combination of both. With insulin therapy, determining the amount of insulin to be injected can require forecasting meal composition of fat, carbohydrates and proteins along with effects of exercise or other physiologic states. The management of lifestyle factors such as body weight, diet, and exercise can significantly influence the type and effectiveness of a therapy.
Management of diabetes involves large amounts of diagnostic data and prescriptive data that are acquired from medical devices, personal healthcare devices, patient recorded information, healthcare professional tests results, prescribed medications and recorded information. Patients with diabetes and their healthcare professionals interact with a variety of medical devices and systems to help manage the disease. including performing structured collection procedures. For each of these differing types of medical devices, there is a need to aggregate, manipulate, manage, present, and communicate diagnostic data and prescriptive data from multiple data sources in an efficient manner to improve the care and health of a person with diabetes, so the person with diabetes can lead a full life and reduce the risk of complications from diabetes. There is also a need to aggregate, manipulate, manage, present, and communicate such diagnostic data and prescriptive data amongst the different types of medical devices using a standard communication protocol. IEEE 11073 is an exemplary communication standard that addresses interoperability and communication amongst medical devices such as blood pressure monitors, blood glucose monitors and the like. Within the context of such communication protocols, there is a further need to support advanced communication features, such as communications between devices not configured to directly communicate with one another.
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure.